Fall River pub hosts MS fundraiser

The parking lot of the St. James Irish Pub at 91 Purchase St. was packed with vehicles for a multiple sclerosis fundraiser on Saturday.

Marc Munroe Dion Herald News Staff Reporter

FALL RIVER — On Saturday afternoon, as thin Easter weekend traffic passed through downtown Fall River, the parking lot of the St. James Irish Pub at 91 Purchase St. was packed with vehicles, and the sound of James Taylor’s “You’ve Got a Friend,” sung live, drifted out through the open street door.

“It’s going good,” said David Brandt, 49, sitting in his wheelchair in the parking lot. “There area lot of people in there. A lot of generous people.”

Brandt has multiple sclerosis and has had the disease for 10 years. Downstairs in the bar, co-owned by David Brandt’s brother, John, a lot of people David Brandt had never met before were eating and drinking and listening to music, having paid $10 a pop to help another guy they’d never met run the Boston Marathon for David Brandt and for MS research.

Myson Mosemann, like the Brandts, is from the area around Carlisle, Pa., and he’s running to support David Brandt.

“This is my first marathon,” Mosemann said lightly. “I’ve run half-marathons.”

Mosemann said he’s been training pretty steadily and he’s done a number of 20-mile runs, building up.

The Boston Marathon requires runners to have qualifying times in other marathons to enter; organizers also allow a certain number of runners without a qualifying time as long as they are doing it for charity. Mosemann was required to raise at least $4,000 for an MS charity.

Proceeds from bar sales Saturday went to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

“He’s raised about $6,000,” John Brandt said. “We’d like to raise $4,000 and make it an even $10,000.”

According to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society website, the cause of MS is still unknown. Scientists believe the disease is triggered by an as-yet-unidentified environmental factor or factors in a person who is genetically predisposed to respond.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society mobilizes people and resources to search for a cure and to help improve the lives of those affected by MS.